I test rode a Bianchi Milano over the weekend. A more pedestrian bike than I am interested in (it even had rubber pedals), but the Nexus hub was great. Fast shifting is a very nice thing to have in Manhattan.

Unfortunately, it looks like it will be impossible to get the Nexus hub in an off the shelf bike I would actually want to buy (I don't want a hybrid - too slow/heavy). One option would be retrofitting a singlespeed bike (Bianchi makes a single speed version of the Volpe for example). I am not sure what that would cost.

I still haven't seen a great solution for shifting an internal hub from drop bars though. Anything that requires me to move one of my hands from the bars is not a great solution IMHO.